Fortune's Haze
by WhisperedInTheSoundofSilence
Summary: In the future of Hyrule, Link is given psychiatric medication for his psychological problems that seem to be caused by his many lifetimes of saving Hyrule. (Fixed some things. Chapter 7 is up!)
1. Nocturne of Shadow

**Fortune's Haze**

**Chapter One**

"A young boy clad in green takes up a sword from a pedestal, it being too big for his small frame to weild. Next thing he knows, he's an adult. Still clad in green, a green tunic, to be precise, he takes up the sword, beginning his journey between times..."

A page turns.

"A young man takes to the skies, riding on a giant red bird. He soars above the clouds, before falling to the earth below...He's also clad in a spring green, his hair a sandy color of blonde..."

Another page turns.

"A young man washes up on the beach, a woman coming by and saving him from the creatures that lurk there. A mountain in the distance shows a large speckled egg. The young man is clad in a green tunic." The elderly man looks up from the journal to the young man sitting before him. "So, Link, it looks like you're still having these dreams."

Link looks down, a look of shame filling his face as he nods. He was scrawny, not like the person in his dreams, his hair a soft dishwater blonde color, his clothing a dark green shirt, with black pants. Green had always been his favorite color, and now he wore it almost exclusively. It reminded him of the forests...the forests he had never seen, unless it was in his dreams. He looked back up at the man that was speaking to him, and quickly looked away. For a moment, there, the man had swelled up like a goron. To his vision for a moment he was a large, music loving goron. He squeezed his eyes shut, and reopened them, seeing the elderly man there once more. "I can't make the dreams or visions stop. The medications aren't working..."

The psychiatrist nodded. They were almost at the end of treatment. Failed treatment to be exact. The boy's visions had plagued him ever since he was a small child. Always the same general story of saving the world. The triforce...which the journal had scrawled on it, of the Goddess worship that Hyrule had taken to be fact long ago. Legends and myths plagued the boy's mind. He would have to up the dosage of antipsychotics and perhaps antidepressants. The way that the visions were going, this young man would never have a normal life, get a normal job, or any of the things that most aspired to. The visions would accost him even when he was doing simple things such as driving, eating, or writing.

"I am going to increase your medication, Link." The doctor said, as he handed the journal back to him. He procured a pen, and began writing the prescription.

Link shook his head. "Dr. Darunia, I've been on some type of medicine since I was a child. What if... what if I would try to wean myself off of it, and see what would happen?" He looked up at him, his sky blue eyes pleading, near tears. He had never felt normal with the dreams and visions, but, somehow they had always felt pulling, teaching, like destiny...

Darunia looked at him. "Are you certain? This is a textbook case of schizophrenia. What if the visions and dreams take over, and you can't tell reality from fiction? Would you be willing to take that chance?"

Link smiled weakly at the doctor. The expense of the medications had left him destitute, and nearly homeless. They took away the visions, for the most part, when he was awake, and, if he took them right before bedtime, while he was alseep. Miss one dose, though, and they were back with a vengeance...like Fate was talking to him. "...What do I have to lose?"

Link tottered out into the daytime sun, and looked around. Chroniker was a fairly big city, with the accompaning smog and loudness. Gray and dull, hence why he never went out in the bright green of himself in his dreams. He had never told the doctor that. HE was the green clad boy and man in the dreams. He was the one that had pulled the sword from the pedestal, he was the one who had ridden the horse. "Now long extinct..." He murmured to himself as he began to walk down the street. He looked down at the paper in his hand as he stopped at a crosswalk. On it were directions for weaning himself off of the powerful medications which had kept him functioning, more or less, since he had been about 10 years old. He sighed, placing the paper into his backpack quickly, before the light told him to walk across the street.

He must've been a little slow about walking, because a thousand honks followed him back onto the sidewalk from the middle of the road. The honks turned into chicken clucks in his mind's ear, as he covered his head, and ran onto the sidewalk, not stopping. The clucking, and the pecking. He could feel it all through his body. He squeezed his eyes shut, and ran until he was out of breath, nearly knocking over several people in his mad dash.  
He came to his right senses when he heard his steps echoing instead of just making the dull thuds that they normally made in a busier part of town. Back street? He opened his eyes slowly, and looked around. The rough part of town. "Wow, I had really ran far..." He said to himself before a feeling of danger eeked into him. He didn't belong here. He needed to get away. Biting his bottom lip a bit, he turned around, only to just about smack into the chest of someone that towered over him. "Ack! Ex...excuse me!" He stammered, as he backed up, and went to go around him.

The larger man blocked his path. "Aw, what's the rush, kid?" He said, his pale green skin, red hair, and gruff expression giving an indication that he was Gerudian. He stepped forward. "I bet you have something nice in that backpack."

Link shook his head, and stepped back. There was a flash, the Gerudian looking older, larger, and with a glowing mark on his hand for a split second, before turning back into what he was now. A common thug? The sinking feeling in Link's gut told him that he had come face to face with this person before,and that it was wise to get away. "I-I have nothing!" He stammered, turning around to try to get away, but only seeing some more thugs beginning to surround him. Some were Hylian, some were Gerudian, and some seemed to be a mixture between the two.

Link backed up a bit again, finding himself surrounded. He gulped. What was in his backpack? His journal, his ruple card, wallet, pen, money, basically his whole life. He felt something odd within himself. Strength? Determination? He had to get away. He looked around quickly for something to use, finding a metal pipe laying in the alleyway. Holding it, he looked back at the people, brandishing it similiarly like a sword or a baseball bat. "Stay away! I-I don't want to hurt anyone!" He stammered.

The leader smirked at this, "Looks like we have a fighter, guys."

Link felt a sharp blow to the head, then darkness.

"Where is he...?" A girl looking out the window of a quaint restaurant downtown says to herself, as she checks her watch. Link should've been there by now. He was supposed to go to the shrink, and then meet her here for lunch. He was half an hour late, which was unlike him. He was pretty forgetful at times, but when it came to being on time, he never let her down.

The waiter came by, looking at her pitifully. "Miss, if your friend isn't showing, then we will have to ask you to leave. We are rather full up, and-"

"Fine." She said crossly, and stood up, making a rather scornful look at the people that were waiting for a table, but not saying anything as she brushed past. She would wait outside for him, then. She heard a rather painful yelp down the street, and saw several guys come out of an ally carrying a backpack. One was carrying what looked to be a bloodied pipe. Narrowing her eyes, she reached in her purse, bringing out her glasses, putting them on. "Magnify." She said, as she looked at the backpack. There was an "L" inscribed in dark green on the front. "Well, shit." She said under her breath as she waited for the guys to continue walking before she crossed the street, and went into the alleyway.

There she saw Link, unconscious, broken, bloody, sprawled upon his stomach with his clothing ripped. "Link, oh Link!" She said, as she placed a hand on his shoulder, before turning him over onto his back gently. He let out a moan of pain, as he coughed, the spittle being dark red. "Link...hold on!" She says, as she reaches into her purse, grabbing the same glasses, pushing a button on the side of them, and speaking into it. "I have an emergency at the corner of Windfish and 2nd street! My friend...oh...thank you!" She pushed the button on the glasses again, and slid them back into her purse.

"They'll be here soon..." She said, as she surveyed the damage. A black eye, blood everywhere, a cut lip, and, by the way his chest was rising and falling, maybe a busted rib. Tears burned her eyes as they gathered. What had he been doing in this backstreet? She looked around. It was fairly common, echo-y, but also looked like several of the homeless lived here. She hoped that the thugs didn't come back before the ambulance showed up.

A cough came from Link. "T-tetra-?"

"Shh..." She ran a hand through his hair, feeling a knot on the back of his head beginning to rise up. He was probably concussed. Who was Tetra? That was an incredibly old name...

He was in the dreams again, the ocean stretched before him, then shrank.

"Link...Link...ye who were the hero... You were the chosen one again, but... Something is wrong... Go to the old shrine in Chroniker. I will meet you there."

The voice burned in his memory, then the waters of the world closed up, revealing a barren landscape, before he woke up.


	2. Elegy of Emptiness

**Fortune's Haze**

**Chapter 2**

(**Note:** I combined my original Chapter 2 with my original Chapter 3, as they both seemed rather short. Enjoy!)

Meanwhile...  
"Hey, boss. The kid didn't have anything on him of use. The only thing mildly interestin' is this journal."

The Garudian looked up from his book with a rather bored expression. "Oh?"

"Yeah, get a load of this," The mostly Hylian thug began to recite from the journal. "There are three deities in the dreams, having created everything. There is a certain power associated with these three Goddesses, being manifest as a 3 triangled shape of gold. They might have left his for us...? They are...beautiful, beings of light. Sometimes, I am their personal errand boy, and other times, it is if they don't even exist. They keep telling me their names, but I can't remember when I wake up."

The boss raises an eyebrow, as he puts his own book away, listening.

"Sometimes I feel as though I'm split into four. Four beings, one mind, different colors worn...tunics, bright golden hair. If there is a Deity, it mocks me." The thug laughs, turning a page. "Went to the doctor today, he seems rather confused about my medicine. Apparently I'm on the highest dose, and it has only managed to quiet the visions, not dispell them. Dr. Darunia keeps looking to me like a Goron from my dreams. I...haven't told him of this. I don't want to be put away."

Something stirred within the Garudian, as he shifted in his chair. These stories were eerily familiar. He was having a sense of deja-vu with some. With others? Well, he felt as though he should remember, or should know something of these stories. He frowned a bit. "Go on, Yuga. Is there anymore?"

"Well..." Yuga says with somewhat of a flourish as he turns the pages. "Ah. Here we are. 'I keep having nightmares about one Garudian. Tall, with red hair, light green skin, armor. Bad temper, intelligent. His name starts with a G... He torments me in the dreams with monsters and traps. He laughs at me. I have slain him many times in different ways in the dream scape." Yuga looks up at the Garudian.

The boss was closing his eyes, listening to this. There was something like a memory that stirred within him, it seemed. Almost like from another life.

"Boss?"

He erupts into forced laughter. "This is absurd! Did we get any money from him at least?"

"All he had was like 10 ruples on his card."

"Go buy yourself some food, then. I have to go meet with Ghira."

"Alright, Sir."

Link woke up to the white ceiling seeming to stare at him. It was one of those ceilings that had the stucco, in which you could sometimes see pictures. He mulled this over a little, before the pain started. Groaning, he assessed his situation, and closed his eyes, before looking back, seeing Qatria asleep on the chair next to the bed.

He didn't know if it was another hallucination, or just a trick of the light, but she looked beautiful. Regal even in sleep, her golden pixie cut hair catching the sunlight that was streaming through the window just so. It looked like spun gold. He reached out a hand to touch her hair gently, before pain lit up his left side as he turned. "Agh..." He groaned, pulling the arm back.

He watched as her eyes fluttered slowly as she came to, his noise waking her up. Greenish blue eyes, like seawater stared into his for a moment, before she smiled with a tinge of worry crinkling in the corner of her eyes. "...Good morning, Link."

He smiled as much as he could, his face felt swollen. "Good morning, Qat."

She reached over and squeezed his hand. "What happened?"

He winced a bit, and looked away from her. "I was mugged...they took my backpack."

She nodded slowly. "...I found you in an alleyway near the Cucco's Nest...I got a good look at the guys who did this to you."

He coughed a bit when he saw the murderous glint to her eyes, then forced his face into some sort of a smirk of a smile. "Yeah...I got a good look at them too." He said with a certain sarcastic slant to his voice as he chuckled then groaned as pain racked his side.

"Ha ha..." She smirked a bit. "The doctor said that you should make a full recovery. He wants to talk to you later today, though you'll be in here for about a week." She ran a hand over his forehead, and through his hair gently, before pressing her lips gently to his. "I'm glad you're okay."

He squeezed her hand. "Qat...my journal was in that backpack."

She frowned a bit, looking into his eyes. "You were coming back from an appointment?"

"Yes."

"Well, you can make a new one. They'll probably just have a laugh at it, and throw it away. You know how they are." She said this dismissively, but part of her was watching his reaction. She knew he felt deeply ashamed about his...disorder.

He nodded.

She looked at the clock on the wall, then back at him. "...I have to go to work, but I'll see you this evening, okay?"

"Okay."

She kissed his forehead goodbye, and before she left, he gripped her arm, while looking into her eyes. "Tetr-Qat...please don't do anything stupid." He searched her eyes hard for a moment. He knew that when she was angry, she was capable of almost anything. Especially if that 'almost anything' had to do with him. He loved her for it, but he also worried for her safety.

"I won't." She smiled as she kissed him, then left. Her face was red in protective anger towards him. She left the room, and quietly closed the door leaving Link to his thoughts. Maybe she would get revenge for him? Or should she let him handle it himself?

Link sighed, and looked up at the ceiling, then closed his eyes. He felt so tired.

The doctor came into Link's room shortly after. He was carrying a clipboard. He glanced at Link, then stated, "Link, Link Allman*?"

The blond Hylian nodded, sitting up straighter before grasping his side with an intake of breath.

"Mr. Allman, you appear to have cracked several ribs, been concussed, and have a black eye, not to mention several bruises." The doctor seemed almost unconcerned, though kindly enough. Link reckoned that he saw several people with worse conditions than his everyday. Some, maybe, that not even the red stuff that they were intravenously pumping into him could cure.

Link nodded, not wishing to speak much. His head still pounded, though the minor painkillers that they had him on helped, it still stung whenever he moved his head, or spoke too much.

"There's not much that we can do for broken ribs, I'm afraid, so we're going to keep you here for observation for the next couple of days, just in case your concussion was more severe than what we originally thought." At this, Link rubbed the back of his head. There was a knot there that was sore to the touch. He winced a bit, and nodded again to the doctor, before his eyes flitted over the doctor's shoulder. The moon, large as a grapefruit, was staring at him through the blinds. He blinked hard, then squeezed his eyes shut, before opening them again, willing the vision to cease.

The doctor watched him with mild interest, and wrote something on the paper. "I also called your psychiatrist. Apparently you have been given leave to be weaned off your medication. We can reinstate it to make your stay more comfortable, or you can choose to start lessening your dose here, while you're in observation."

Link looked towards the window again, still seeing the ghastly vision of the moon. He gulped, and forced himself to look away towards the doctor, though his peripheral vision made the visage ever more haunting. He licked his lips, and nodded. "I-I would like to continue to lessen my dose." His mouth felt rather dry, so he reached for the water glass on the stand next to his bed. Gulping the water down, he hand was trembling ever so slightly. "W-will you close the curtains, please?" He asked, after sitting the glass back down carefully.

The doctor nodded, and closed the curtains. He looked out to see what might have frightened the young man so badly, but he saw nothing of consequence. There was a circle window facing the hospital on the adjacent building, but it wasn't anything significant. The blinds were closed in that building as well, though they were a dark brown in color.

He looked back at Link. "If you see anymore visions, please let me, or one of the nurses know. You were on an uncommonly high amount of anti-psychotics. In fact, I've never seen this large of a dose before. By all rights, you should've spent most of your time catatonic.." He looked at his sheet, then back at the young Hylian. "You've also healed most of your bruises up in the short time that you've been here. Does fast healing run in your family?"

After the blinds were closed, Link let out a sigh, and leaned back, closing his eyes, and rubbing his forehead, gently, so as not to aggravate his swollen eye. He squeezed his left hand, then opened it slowly, while opening his eyes again, and looking at the doctor. "I wouldn't know, to be honest. I was a foundling." He said, his mouth turning at the corners sadly. He had been told that the Temple had found him on their doorstep as an infant, swaddled in a light green blanket.

"I see. Well, healing of your ability is quite rare. You're lucky." The doctor said, as he smiled, and wrote some more things down on the paper on the clipboard.

The blond only gave him a weak smile at that. He was lucky...yet cursed. He took another drink of water.

The doctor paused, and nodded. "Well, it looks like everything's in order. Either I or a nurse will check on you in a little while. There's a television, and-"

"Is there a notebook or something that I can write in?" Link said with a rather desperate tinge to his voice, "...my journal was stolen during..." He blushed lightly, and looked away. To be as old as he was, and to admit to keeping a journal, or a diary was...well, rather embarrassing. He just thought that there must be SOMETHING to the dreams that he had been having. Well, the dreams and visions. He felt that he MUST record them. Like they were important, memory-like.

The doctor smiled. "Yes, of course, I'll have a nurse bring you one."

"Thank you."

The doctor left the room, closing the door behind him.

After the door closed, Link looked towards the curtain once more. It swayed slightly in the brief puff of air from the closing door, showing the moon's red eye staring at him from outside, before it closed back into place.

*Link's last name has to do with the fact that, in the game, he never had a last name, and he is supposed to be representative of the player, or "all of man." I was also looking at the back of a book for inspiration for his last name, and saw this. It seemed to fit.


	3. Song of Storms

Fortune's Haze

Chapter 3

The air was sweet and heavy coming through the window. It was late Spring, the fruit trees in bloom, beginning to lose their petals.

A waft of the fragrance blew in, tickling the noses of the two Hylians in bed. They were both blonde, with light skin, and light eyes. Their ears lightly tapered to points at the end.

The man was on top of the woman, gazing down at her with adoration. He watched the breeze as it came through and made the woman's hair blow around a little.

He ran a hand along her face gently.  
"Qat, I..."  
"Shhh..." She said, gently rubbing her nose against his, while smiling.  
He smiled, and blushed, touching his nose back against hers.  
It was times like these that he really could forget his troubles. He lowered his head down to rest on her chest, hugging her gently, but tightly.  
"I love you." He breathed as he listened to her heartbeat, closing his eyes. So soft, yet strong in her chest, thuh thump, thuh thump, thuh thump...

A sharp pain in his arm jolted him awake. "Wuh? Ow!" He went to move his arm away, but it was held still. A nurse was there, taking his blood. This nurse was different though, she had... blue hair? Was that right? He rubbed his eyes, and took a closer look at her. Blue...glowing? No... that's not-

"Are you okay, Link?" Her voice came to him, high and shrill. He could've sworn he had heard that before...

"Yes...but, ow!" He started to move his arm again, but she held it still, her nails digging into his arm. "Could you maybe be a little more gentle? I was asleep!"

"Yes, yes..." She said, loosening up on her nails a bit on his skin, leaving little pock-marks there. She finished filling the vial, and placed it at her side. She stared at it a moment, and giggled a bit.

He could've sweared she glowed blue. Or had blue hair. Rubbing his temple, he felt a mild headache coming on. "...what time is it?..uh..." he looked at her name tag. "Navi?"

She shook her head, and put the vial..in the pocket of her scrubs. She looked back at him, the glow that he saw around her getting brighter. "Oh? The time? Well, time for you to wake up, of course!" She giggled shrilly, and swabbed his puncture would with alcohol, and put a gauze on it, with some tape. She then stood up, and turned, walking out of the room briskly, while shutting the door behind her.

He sighed, and rubbed his eyes, looking at his arm. It would truly be bruised now. Ugh..and that glow...he swore that he had seen it somewhere before. "Maybe in a dream..." he muttered, as he reached underneath his pillow, finding the small notebook they had given him. He had been sleeping so peacefully before that...weirdness had happened. Navi...did she just start being a nurse?

He shook his head, and slid the pen out of the rings of the notebook, and began to write.

Qatria licked her lips as she looked at the clock. It was near time to leave. Just about an hour more. She sighed, and looked back at her computer. She wondered if she would get in trouble if she just left early. She could say she had a family emergency? She grinned with a smirk, as she looked at the monitor, without really seeing was was on the screen. Family emergency indeed.

She shut off her computer, and then screwed her face up into one of quiet desperation/worry. Family emergency it is. She went to her boss's office, and knocked.

"Come in."

She opened the door, and stepped inside, "Ma'am, I need to leave early. Family emergency."

The businesswoman in the office nodded, looking mildly worried. "Alright. Is everything okay?"

Qat made herself nod. "Yes. I just...I need to leave."

"Okay. I hope everything works out."

Qat turned to go out the door, and whispered, "Me too."

She left, going out of the building, and to her car. She narrowed her eyes. How to do it? How to find them? How to find him, specifically? She knew what he looked like. Link had told her. He had muttered it in his concussed sleep. Tall, red hair, light green skin... half, or full Garudian...

She walked quicker down the street. The people of the Garudian lineage mostly lived in the...bad part...of town. 'Shit...I'll have to change.' She thought to herself, as she got in her car, and began making a bee-line to her house.

Ganon** looked in the mirror as he finished braiding his hair. It was in cornrows. Red cornrows that contrasted with his light green skin. He managed to do them himself...mostly because he didn't much trust those that were his...minions? Allies? The people that he told to do stuff? He trusted them about as far as he could throw them. Which was ironic, because he could throw someone pretty far if he wanted to.

He rubbed his left hand a bit. Ever since they had that run in with the kid, his hand had been burning mildly. 'I wonder if the kid had some disease or something that he transferred to that notebook.' He smirked to himself, and eyed his reflection again. They were going on another heist tonight, and he was attending. The big stuff is what he liked to participate in.

He cracked his neck, and stretched. He had already read the journal. It was fascinating, though he felt a bit bad for the kid. He also felt uneasily like he knew him.

'Hmm.' He looked at his watch. It was several hours before work...maybe...

"Boss. Someone wants to see you!"

"Whos is it?"

"Says his name is Asim*. Some Hylian."

"What does he want?"

"Won't say. Just said he needs to see you. Specifically."

"..." Ganon eyed him fiercely, before nodding, and following him out of the bathroom, and into the hallway leading to the main room. He was going to definitely find out how this Asim got into their hideout, and then find why his men had let someone random in here.

He reached the main entrance, and saw a small man with blonde hair, and a bandana across his lower face looking at him with red eyes. Tan skin. His hand began to fiercely burn as he walked near this...Asim. He glanced at his men, and nodded, security was fine.

"Hello, Asim. I was told that you wanted to speak to me?" He said with an almost bored tone, as he watched him. There was something very light, almost surreal about his appearance. He was short, but most Hylians were, and his skin was tanned as if he had been in the sun for a long time. Working, perhaps? His shirt was loose, blue, and he was wearing a pair of jeans. Nondescript, really, except for his eyes. Those eyes were piercing. Dangerous? Maybe.

Asim nodded. "Yes. I have heard tell of your little band here." He gestured towards the other members. "...I wish to join."

He quirked an eyebrow at this. "Join?" I already have enough members. More than I can afford." He smirked, and stepped forward a little. "Why do you wish to join? What could you offer us?"

"I have several talents. Stealth, poisoning, hand to hand, quickness." Asim narrowed his eyes just slightly. "...Intelligence." He paused, gauging the boss's reaction to each word. "I have come across the information that you are going on a job this evening." Asim blinked slowly. "I want in."

The Gerudian coughed a bit at the last sentence. How could he've known. He eyed the man up and down. Gruff, soft voice, seemed to know what he was talking about...and to give aid so freely? Something was definitely up, but maybe he was like most of the rest, in need of money. That bandana, though... "Sounds good. I don't make deals with people whom I can't see their face, though." He stepped forward again, almost being a foot away from small man. With a quick motion, he slid the bandana down, just enough to see the bottom part of Asim's face. Soft, square chin, medium lips, androgynous, soft cupid's bow. No hair on the face, no shave marks, no stubble. He smirks, and leans down, whispering in his ear. "...I see you, girl. If you don't want this to be most horrible for you, I suggest playing along." He whispered this very quickly, but she got the hint.

Qat re-positioned the bandanna, her heart racing, as the Gerudian stood back up, and eyed her with a smirk. "Horrible scarring." He said to the boys and men that were around him, before turning back to her. "You're in. We're taking two others besides us. You will get a tenth of the loot." He smiled, looking at her knowingly.

"A tenth is barely what I could make on my own. I want at least a fifth."

There was a minor gasp among the ranks, as he chuckled. "A seventh, or take your ass out of here."

"Deal." Asim said, holding out his hand, narrowing his eyes.

Ganon smirked, shaking his hand, all the while the burn in his hand increasing.

*Asim means "Protector/Guardian" in Arabic.

**I changed the name, as it was annoying me as well. 


	4. Bolero of Fire

Chapter 4

"No, you don't understand. It's not like I was being painted...it was like I WAS the painting. The painting was me...and I only had a bit of time before I was ejected into the real world again."

"...How long have you been having dreams like this?"

"...ever since I can remember. I used to wake up, sweating, terrified, at the monastery. The nuns used to refer to these as my 'fits.' They took me to the doctor, and I was given-started on, the medication." He sighed, running a hand through his hair. His face looked pretty much normal again, there was only a little tinge of a bruise around his eye, and his ribs were sore. This was a week after he had been admitted to the hospital.

The new psychiatrist looked at the notebook, then back at Link. "You also seem to be having these...fits...while you are awake?"

Link nodded, looking above the doctor's head. A figure with a lantern, and a cloak with two glowing slits for eyes hovered there.* It had been hovering there throughout the session. Sometimes it would twirl a little, and fade, but mostly it just made faces, and watched him. It wasn't too scary. Not like that moon...

He looked back at the doctor. "Yes. Ever since I stopped taking my anti-psychotics, the sightings, and 'fits' have gotten worse." He blinked, the figure fading a little, with a soft chuckle that seemed to flitter along the edge of his mind.

The doctor scratched the side of his pointed ear. He was a Hylian like Link, though his ears were a bit shorter. As the generations had came and went, the need for such points, such sensitivity to sounds had grown as more of a burden instead of a help, what, with the need for cities, and high populations. He squinted at his notes.

"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"

Link felt a chill run down his spine, as he looked back at the doctor. "Wh-what did you say?" He could almost hear some sort of strange music playing over and over again, just at the very edge of his memory. It was maddening...

The doctor looked up, seeing Link looking rather panicked, as he was covering his ears. "Hm? I said nothing." He peered at the blond boy, and shook his head a bit. "You are having auditory hallucinations as well?"

Link nodded, and reached out, taking a glass of water. That laugh...that laugh was haunting. He looked back at the doctor. A terrible fate? What fate would that be? He felt the cool water run down his throat, refreshing. As he looked through the glass, the doctor changed. He was hunched over, with a large sack on his back. He felt a sense of foreboding. He stopped, and almost choked on the water, before putting it back down. "Agh."

The doctor looked at him, and shook his head, before standing, and handing Link a business card. "Here you go. I will talk to your doctor. I want you to come see me when you heal up."

Link nodded as he took the card. On it was a picture of a smiling mask, like Comedy in the theater. "Dr. Exulta**, Psychiatrist" He murmured the name, as the doctor nodded, and stood up, leaving. The music followed him, as he left, fading away behind him, until it was no more.

He leaned his back against the pillow. He had maybe one more day in the hospital, and then he could go, with his new doctor, he was uneasy, but maybe it would be okay? He looked down at his arm where the bruise had been from the nurse. It was almost gone. He felt fine, but the doctors wanted to keep him a little longer 'just to be safe.'

"Heh. Healing certainly wasn't as efficient as it was..." He found himself murmuring, as he carefully stretched. He tasted a bitter taste in his mouth, very distinctive. Nurturing, healing. Hmm, some kind of tea? He grabbed his notebook, and wrote it down swiftly. The specific taste. The forest, mushrooms, herbs. Some kind of tea, or potion? Heavy in his hand.

He looked at the page he was on in the notebook. This information was getting rather out of hand. It was looking almost like a history. "A history of what, though?" He coughed, then winced at the sharp pain that lit up his side.

Not much to do for a broken rib. Wait it out.

Just then, his vision darkened. The whole room seemed to lengthen and darken. Also, there was a sense of being cold...dropped in a well. He shivered, and hugged himself for warmth. What was this? Sensory hallucination as well? A place on his bottom burned. Right where...

"Link, you have a birthmark!" Qat had said with a kind of chuckle, as she watched him pull up his pants.

"Really?" He laughed, as he pulled his pants over his hips. "What kind?"

"It's rather odd, to be honest, almost like a triangle, but with other triangles in it. One of them is darker than the others." She poked at his left butt cheek, around about the middle. "Right there." Where she had poked, it had tingled a little. Pleasantly, though.

He guffawed. "No way! That's goofy."

She smirked, and pulled him back to her. "Let me see it again."

He blushed, letting her pull him back, before they both fell back into bed.

There was a knock before the door opened. A frigid wind enveloped him, as he stared. There was an impossibly tall being trying to get into the room. 7, 8 foot tall? Pitch black, snout, bristling fur, glowing eyes. Something out of a nightmare. Link jumped up from the bed, making a little shout, and stared at the being in a defensive crouch.

His birthmark burned harshly now, as he backed up.

Instinctively he reached his left hand down to grip a sword. He felt that it must be there. It must, though his hand gripped only air. Where was it?

"Link." The great porcine creature said, the words echoing through the blond Hylian who was just about afraid out of his wits, and grasping for something with his hand. The creature pulled out a notebook from the darkness behind him. "I believe you left this with one of my men." The creature's eyes narrowed.

Link couldn't say anything, as he stared. He looked at the notebook, then back at the figure. This must be another hallucination. Maybe if he concentrated, he could-

"I must admit, for someone who tells such stories, I'm rather disappointed."

"Wha-" Link shook his head, trying to will the visions to cease. A flicker happened, as the room looked normal, the figure in front of him just appearing to be a tall elder teen or young adult Gerudian. Red hair, gold eyes, awful smirk. "...Disappointed?"

"Ah, he can talk." Ganon smirked, and took a seat, looking at the boy. He got a brief flash of a sword, and of green through his mind, as his hand burned like fire. There was something about him, about him and that girl... "I have some business to discuss with you."

The darkness seemed to cease, as Link stood, still looking at the Gerudian, before he rubbed his eyes. Ah. There, his vision was normal again. He felt no need to apologize, though. Whatever the visions were... he knew that this one had been a horrible warning. A warning of...what, though? "What business?"

The Gerudian tossed the book onto the hospital bed. "Based on your wonderful writings, I've found who your girlfriend is. I've successful got her working for me on a heist this evening." He said this slowly, watching Link carefully for his reaction. "If she reveals herself as anything other than one of the guys, then I'll have to-"

"Link, you won't believe what just happened on my way home from work, I-"

Qat entered the room, seeing him and Link talking to each other, her voice dying on her lips. 


	5. Melody of Darkness

**Chapter 5**

As Dr. Exulta left the hospital, he breathed a sigh of relief. Link hadn't been as bad as he had thought. He had read the notes that the previous doctor had given him, and the kid had seemed much better. He smiled as he headed down the steps of the hospital, and brushed something off of his shoulder. He had felt like something had been there, but it was silly. Probably just a moth.

It was a short trip to the office, and he grinned, as he stepped through the door. There were masks by the dozen hanging on the walls. Many masks, most of them antiques. They were there to remind him, that everyone hides behind something in order to get through their day to day life. Everyone puts on masks to survive...

His eyes floated over them. There was one that resembled a yellow fox, one that resembled a man in a red hat with a mustache, a white letter 'M' on the front of the hat, and one that looked like a stone face, with a frown. He smiled, and picked up one that was laid on his desk. It was white, and it had a red eye in the forehead. This was the one he used with his patients the most. It seemed to cut underneath what they thought he wanted to hear, and told him what the real issue was, what they were really saying. "My mask of truth." He said to himself while running a finger along the side of it. It was very old, the paint faded considerably upon it. He would wear it when Link came. He usually avoided using it during the first session, though, because it usually freaked out new people, and they would never come back. He knew how they felt, as he remembered what had happened when his teacher had used it on the class...

_They were seated in the lecture hall, taking notes, when the teacher, a rather tall, slim woman in her mid-thirties had taken out the mask from a briefcase. "Now, I will demonstrate how psychology worked in the mid-era." She said, while briefly looking around the room._

_The room was tense, they all knew what the mask could do, though they didn't really know if it could work. There was a silence, as she surveyed, and then pointed to him. "Mr. Exulta."_

_He had stood, and went to the front of the lecture hall with the teacher. She bade him to sit in the chair, as she donned the mask. A couple of the students laughed, until she held up her hand to them, then they quieted down. She did look rather silly, but, imposing at the same time, as she regarded him. "Tell me about yourself."_

_He looked up, and into the eye. Suddenly, he felt like it was boring into his soul. He wanted to tell it everything. He opened his mouth, and then shut it. Should he? Was it okay to... Yes, yes it was. "My name is Shigeru* Exulta, I am 19 years old. I dropped out of high school when I was 14, and got my GED." He said this all rather fast, as if it was spilling out of him. "I'm into video games, and I have a crush on Ms. Marie, though I don't know her last name."_

_There was a giggle, and a scrambling sound of someone getting up and leaving. A girl with long, pink hair had left the room hurridly. She was Marie, apparently._

_"I hope to be a psychologist when I get out of school. I like school for the most part. I enjoy collecting things. I enjoy lots of things." He hadn't drawn a breath, and his voice was becoming mostly a whisper at this point. The teacher held up her hand, as if to tell him to stop. She then took the mask off, and smiled at him. "That's enough, Shigeru." She turned to the class. "This is the power of this mask. The ancients used it to gather many secrets."_

_Shigeru blushed heavily, and took a deep breath. It was like all the information had just came out of him..._

_Then, a thought entered into his mind. If he could get that mask..._  
_It would definitely enhance his life. To know everything about everyone, just by putting something on, and asking the right questions?_

_"Shigeru, you may go back to your seat."_

_He nodded, and scurried back, thinking about where the mask might be. Where did she keep it? At her house? Or-_

_"Miss Nabooru?"_

_"Where do you keep the mask?"_

_"Oh, it's locked up safely every night." The teacher smiled, putting it back into it's case. The case clicked with a latch. "Now. If everyone would turn to page 78..."_

_There was a collective groan, but he looked at the briefcase. It was a combination lock. On the underside had been some numbers... 2...3...4...7...8..._

_Hm._

There was a knock at the door. "Mr. Exulta. Your 4 o' clock is here."

"Excellent." He said, setting the mask back down onto his desk. "Send her in."

"I don't like it when you use that mask. The patients don't like it, either."

Shigeru frowned hard. This isn't what he wanted to hear today. Today had been a breakthrough with several of his patients. Marie had uncovered why she was so afraid of the number 13, Cia had come to grips with her magical thinking (well, at least some of it, she still believed that she could use magic, but the other things, mostly the stuff about the Gate of Souls had been rooted out, and annhilated), and Tim had stopped drooling on himself every time he tried to speak. It had been a good day. But now this.

"The patients seem to be doing well. We had several bouts of progress today, and-"

"The patients are beginning to complain, Doctor." The head physician crossed her arms, and glared at him. "Forcing things out of people is not how we practice psychiatry here."

"I'm not forcing anything. They want to tell me-"

"Yes, but only when the mask is on." She glared at him. "You don't even know how it works. It could be messing with their mind, manipulating them into having false memories...it could be possessed! You don't know."

"Neither do you." He sighed. "As long as the patients make progress, why does it matter how we do it? In the end they are able to lead productive lives, and I get paid. It's all productive, so why quit?"

"Because it's dishonest. And we are an honest company."

He laughed. It was a cruel laugh-right in her face, totally unlike how he was just a moment before, "We capitalize on people's pain and suffering, Doctor." He said the last word as if he had bitten it off his vocabulary.

She frowned, and cringed. "We help people." She said softly, and slowly, before continuing. "We don't just capitalize-"

"We still capitalize."

"People have to make a living somehow."

"Listen." She said, pushing her glasses up on her nose. "Just stop using the mask for a little while. It would probably give the patients ease to know that they were in charge of their faculties when they were in your office."

He sighed, and nodded. "Okay...I guess you are right." He would give them one session of normal therapy, and then go right into using the mask. It was beginning to feel like a crutch, but a necessary one. People were getting over psychosis, and other things at a much faster rate this way. Much faster than even with medicine. Their best medicine. This had to continue.

She nodded, and looked up at the clock. "Okay, I'm going to finish up some paperwork, and go home." She looked back at him. "You get some rest as well. Ever since you started using that thing, you've taken on more patients than ever. You need to take care of yourself."

He smiled, his previous mood calming. "Yes. I will." He paused. "Good night, Doctor."

She smiled to him. "Goodnight."

He closed the door and shook his head. He couldn't believe that he had agreed to not use it the next day. He guessed that he had to keep a list of the people that he was scheduled...they would all get a freebie. A freebie without the mask. He sighed. That would be some long sessions...

_Floating...floating...he was floating..._  
_Darkness all around..._  
_Then...a red eye, staring into him..._

_"I...own...you..." The Voice came, eeking into his mind._

_He looked down. He was naked. Naked, floating in darkness...a red eye burning into him...into his soul...scrutinizing. It made him feel vulnerable, lost, tossed into the abyss._

_"I own you. You will utilize me." The Voice came again, this time right up against his ear._

_He jumped, and looked, seeing the Mask of Truth come at him, latching itself onto his face. It burned into his skin, searing itself into his face. He screamed, trying to rip it off._

_Suddenly, he could see himself fighting with the mask in the dark, the mask looked up at him._

_"You are mine." Then, the eye...blinked._

He woke up covered in sweat. "Ugh." He shook his head.

He had been getting nightmares like that frequently lately. He wondered if there was anything to them. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, and looked across the room, seeing the Mask there. Maybe he shouldn't sleep with it on his nightstand...

He pulled back the covers, finding himself to be nude, his pajamas folded neatly on the chair by his desk.

He had swore that he had went to bed clothed.

_"You are mine."_ The Voice echoed in his head. He bit his lip, and turned again, looking at the mask. It was on the bed this time, closer to him.

"Wha-?"

**_It jumped up, and latched itself onto his face._**

He woke to the sound of himself screaming, and thrashing about.

He put his hand to his face, and sighed. No mask.

He shivered, and rolled to the side, curling into a ball. What kind of a dream was that?

He pinched himself. It hurt. He was truly awake. He allowed his breathing to get back under control, as he ran a hand through his reddish hair. Maybe he WAS working too much. Too many patients with too many problems, making him stressed out. He needed a vacation.

He got up, and went to the mirror, looking at himself in the face. He looked in his eyes, and heard his own voice laugh in his ear, though it seemed from long ago, like the memory of a memory.

"I must be very burned out." He said, before running some cold water, and splashing it on his face. It felt good, refreshing. He looked at the time. Still a bit left before he had to be into the office. Good.

He began to run some water for a bath. This was going to be a long day...

*Shigeru is the name of the original creator of The Legend of Zelda


	6. Song of Time

Chapter 6

Dr. Exulta came into work looking a bit disheveled. The nightmares had taken their toll on him lately, and it showed. He looked down at his rumpled clothes. At least he was clean.

He grabbed his list of appointments from the desk and went through them. Nothing much today, just a few counseling sessions and then a visit from the young man from the hospital. He looked at the file. "Interesting..." he said, reading over Link's diagnosis and his progress. The young man was going off meds that he had been prescribed when he was a kid. Because he 'felt that it was needed.' He looked at the clock, it was 10:23 in the morning. His first client was expected to arrive in about an hour. There was some paperwork that he had to do first.

He walked into his office, still holding the file, and looked at all the masks that were hanging on the wall, then at the mask of truth on the desk. He smiled, running a hand over it, feeling the old magic hum through his being. He didn't know if he would use it's power today, but it might prove useful with Mr. Allman, as the young man seemed mightily obsessed with days long past. There was a soft whisper that came through the mask to his ears, unintelligible, then it was quiet.

He paused, and looked at the mask, before walking over to the small coffee maker on the desk proper. He busied himself with making his second pot of the day, while he absently stared into space. He found himself looking over at the mask more and more. He swore he could hear it constantly muttering to him. He sighed, as the familiar smell of coffee floated up from the small machine.

There was a knock on his door shortly thereafter. "Doctor?" Came the v"oice of the young man.

He turned around, and saw Link, his eyebrows darting up. "Hello. You're not due in for another hour."

Link nodded, and looked away for a moment, before looking back at the doctor, the song softly forming at the edge of his hearing. "I figured that I would come early, that way I could get it over with." He appeared to be better from his injuries, with only a slight hitch in his breath when he breathed too deeply. Exulta figured that he had bruised some ribs or something. No matter, early was fine.

"Alright, Link, go ahead and have a seat on the couch, and let me get your file ready." He paused, and smiled, "would you like some coffee?"

Link shook his head, and headed over to sit down. "No thanks."

"Okay, suit yourself." He brought his own cup with him, and the file, before sitting in a chair across from the hyrulian. He took a sip of the dark liquid, and set the cup down on the table, while perusing the file quickly. "So, Link, any reason why you wanted to come over earlier than the Hospital reccommended?"

"I have things to do, Doctor. Important responsibilities."

Exulta nodded, and looked down at his file.

Link squirmed impatiently. "Listen, Doc. I know that you are just here in order to evaluate how my progress with weaning myself off of the meds is going, but I really have to get going. I'm fine, no more dreams, no more hallucinations."

The doctor shook his head, and looked at Link. "Is that true?" He said as he stood up, and went to his table where all his masks are, running a finger down the white one on the table. The truth mask. He should use it on the boy. It would be beneficial. He gripped the mask and went back to the chair, sitting down with it in his hands. It murmured to him gently in his mind, but otherwise was quiet.

The blond looked at him, and frowned, then looked at the mask. There was a somewhat eerie feeling he got from it, and all the other masks in the room, now that he noticed them. Ancient...magic? More magic? How much magic that was forgotten was there? He sighed, and shifted to a more comfortable position. "Yes. I'm perfectly fine."

The doctor narrowed his eyes, and put the mask on. "Is that TRUE, LINK?"

Link felt his body go numb, and his brain become placid. Everything he thought was right there, everything came up to the surface, revealed for the eye in the mask to see. It was lay bare, his hallucinations, his thoughts, his feelings about everything, everything that had happened earlier that evening. It seemed to come up from deep within him, and spill out his mouth in a rush, his mind to mouth filter gone.

"Oh? And what happened this evening that triggered all of this, Link?"

Link felt himself return back to normal, his mind in place again. He felt compelled not to talk now, as he narrowed his eyes, and stood up, looking down at the doctor in disgust. "This session is over. Using ancient magic for your own benefit is deplorable! I'm out of here." He moved around the chair, and tried the door.

It was locked.

"Link. We're not finished yet. You haven't told me everything." The voice was eerily calm coming from the chair, it almost echoed in the air.

"Yes we are. Let me out of here."

"We can't let you out until you tell us everything. You are from a time before... you remember us don't you." The voice had changed to multiple voices coming out of the Truth mask. "You remember us when we were powerful, when we were with...you."

Link looked back at the chair, the mask turned around on Exulta's head, staring at him. "You remember."

He narrowed his eyes, and searched his mind, it now clear of the drugs, of the clutter that held back his memories, and nodded slowly. "I do remember you. I remember you before you were...corrupted."

"We've been around for a long time, Link. We want to go back out into the world again. We want to go home."

"Where is that?" Link asked, his hand still on the door handle as he looked at the mask.

"We want to go back to clock town. We want to be useful again."

Link sighed, and shook his head. "Clock town no longer exists. We have this town. The Monarchy is dissolved. There is no Hyrule where you would be useful. Not anymore." He said this with an amount of bitterness that surprised him, it coming through his words like he was biting it off. He felt so...out of place, out of time suddenly, and it felt, hollow.

The mask appeared to assess him for a moment. "Take me with you. Take...us...with you. We could help you again."

Link considered it for a moment. His dreams and hallucinations had been real at one point? This confirmed it. He stepped over to Exulta, and gently took the mask off of him, seeing that he appeared to be asleep. "He's in a minor coma. He'll wake up once we're out of here." The voice from the mask said, as link carefully placed it, and the other masks into his backpack, zipping it up. It felt weighted in a way that had nothing to do with weight.

"There is a button underneath the edge of the coffee table on his side. Push it, and we can be out of there."

Link nodded, and bent over, pushing a small round button he found. There was a small 'click' noise at the door. He looked at Exulta, and shook his head, before leaving the room quickly. He had a Gerudian to find. 


	7. Song of Double Time

Chapter 7

Link opened the door to his apartment while looking over his shoulder. He had been sure that someone had been following him on his way there, though he hadn't heard a peep.

He shut the door with a thud, and locked the deadbolt, before hauling his napsack onto a chair that was near the door. It rustled with some creepy whispers before settling down. He sighed and surveyed his apartment. It was a small studio, a couple of chairs being directly in front of him turned toward a small television. The kitchen was also in the same room, double steel sink, the fixtures being painted a dim yellow. To the left was the door to the bedroom, and to the right, the bathroom. There was nothing else.

He glanced at the clock that was above the television. It was around noon. He still had some time to shower, and get ready. He felt that grime had settled over him. He also had enough time to chronical some things...

I nearly had a heart attack when Ganondorf had entered the room, it had looked like a large, billowy whisp of some evil had just strode into my hospital room unannounced. An ancient evil. I had clutched my heart...my sword... my sword?! Where was it? I had reached for the Master Sword...but it wasn't around. I was in a hospital gown. My attacker had me!

But then, my vision had cleared, and I saw a large man, which looked Gerudian, or, at least in part, sit down at the chair near me. I felt ice prickle through my veins, as he had studied me impassively. He seemed to recognize me. But then... he had found my journal! I wonder if he had recognized himself within. A large billowing figure with black magic, and...sometimes, a large pig-like creature that charged at me, wishing to run me down. Always, always wanting to kill me.

Kill me...why? Because I was always thwarting his plans for world domination...or, at least, domination over Hyrule. Constantly, over and over again...the Hero is born, and, it's always...me.

He penned these last few words, and shook his head. His head felt clear now...it felt like he was onto something, that he was telling the truth in his journal. But, how could that be? Tales of a hero that saved the land had faded into legend. No one worshipped the goddesses anymore...well, maybe some did, but they were generally regarded as crazy. The goddesses hadn't made any attempt to speak, or touch the world in so long, that their legends were a bare whisper in the annals of time. For them to have a hand in this...

"It's impossible." He said to himself, his hand trembling a little with the realizations that were coursing through his mind. He didn't want this... Was this the reason for his memories...for his dreams? Was it just a fluke of nature for him to be having such clear insight into all of this? What, exactly...were the goddesses planning, if they even still existed? The last thing he rememebered...well, if they were memories... was getting the triforce, and then awakening Zelda after defeating a darker version of himself...

It felt forever ago. He slumped in his chair.

"A thousand years..." Said a voice from his backpack.

"What?" Link pulled his backpack to himself, and opened it, seeing the Mask of Truth staring at him with that one eye.

"A thousand years ago...you obtained the triforce. You were 16."

"How do you? Get out of my head."

"It's not hard, you're broadcasting everything." There was a little chuckle in that awful, creepy voice, and then it continued, "Then, after you awakened Zelda, you returned to your family, became a farmer, and found a bride, living happily until the end of your days."

Link laughed. "I don't remember that part. I just remember fighting...all the fighting." He rubbed his temples, as he was beginning to get a headache.

"Well, sometimes you didn't make it. The hero of Hyrule doesn't always succeed, and sometimes he is born without necessity. He is still given the training, though."

"The training? Oh, you mean my dreams."

"Aye, why do you think that you were so eager to pull the sword at the hospital? Because you knew. You knew to defeat him you would need the sword. Or-"

"The silver arrow." They both said at once.

Link paused, memories flooding into him. Some were terrifying. Some were comforting, or even funny, but once he opened his mind, it was like watching a movie. All the pictures flooded together, and connected, making sense. "Ganon appears only as a street thug right now, though. It would make no sense to kill him. Perhaps I have just came here this time to make a small life, and to not interfer."

There was no answer from the mask. Link knew it could see into the past, but, perhaps, not the future. He sighed, and stood up, going into his bedroom, and placing his journal in one of the drawers, before gathering some clothes, and heading towards the bathroom. He still had to shower before going anywhere, and his headache hadn't subsided, but he was filled with new hope, and knowledge. The images still came, he would have to tell Quatre about them. He smiled to himself, she might not believe him, but she had listened attentively before now. So she might come around.

He did wonder where the artifacts of long ago might be kept. Perhaps he could find them soon? He wondered if they would react to him at all?  



End file.
